一部女性主义元小说——论《使女的故事》的叙述特质

A Feminism Metafiction: on the Narrative Feature of The Handmaid's Tale

《使女的故事》采用独特的语言和叙述方式,揭示出一个极端政权对女性实施从身体到心灵的控制。主人公通过讲述女性自己的故事,不断审视叙述在创建历史记录中的作用和意义,质疑父权制度下历史与历史的构建方式,抵抗和颠覆男性话语。大量关于小说本身的叙述使文本充满了元小说的特质,小说文本成为一种纯粹的叙述行为。

With its special language and narrative style,The Handmaid's Tale exposes how an extreme regime imposes physical and mental control over women. By telling a story of her own and in her own way,the protagonist keeps examining the role and significance of narration in the process of constructing historical records,so as to challenge history and the way of its construction under the patriarchal system,to resist and overthrow androcentric discourse. A huge amount of narration related to its own narrative process fills the novel with much metafictional quality and the novel itself becomes a kind of pure narrative practice.